Difference Between Aerobic and Anaerobic Exercise

One of the major factors in the difference between aerobic and anaerobic conditioning is your heart rate which is affected by the intensity of the exercise you are performing.

Aerobic exercise burns calories using mostly your fat cells. The body uses a certain amount of glucose (sugar) at first, but as the duration of the exercise increases your metabolism switches over to burning fat as fuel. Fat is an amazing source of fuel and can enable you to exercise for a longer period of time.

Anaerobic exercise uses mostly sugar as the primary fuel. It actually deprives your body of oxygen - that’s why we feel so out of breath after a quick sprint or run up a flight of stairs. Anaerobic activity is geared more toward building and strengthening muscles. Overloading the muscle and depriving the body of oxygen. That is why we get sore muscles from the lactic acid that builds up (shortage of oxygen) in our muscles.

Another major difference between anaerobic and aerobic exercise is the amount of calories expended and how they each affect our metabolism.
Aerobic exercise burns more calories during certain intensity for a long period of time. So with aerobics you burn calorie during exercise plus your body continues to use session as the metabolism is revved up.

Anaerobic conditioning burns fewer calories during the workout session, because it is short quick spurts of energy versus continuous need for oxygen over a longer period of time. Short intense such activities include weight training and wind sprints. Anaerobic exercises burn more calories during the recovery and muscle tissue rebuilding phase.